The Save Mart Companies is an American grocery store operator founded and headquartered in Modesto, California. It owns and operates stores under the Save Mart, Lucky, and FoodMaxx brands. The stores are located in northern and central California and northern Nevada. The company is owned by the Jim Pattison Group.

Overview

Save Mart stores are full-service grocery stores with a broad product offering, including fresh produce, bakery goods, deli foods and ethnic foods. In Lodi and Stockton, an unrelated Save Mart chain operated and so stores were branded under the S-Mart Foods name. The unrelated chain has since folded and the stores in Lodi and Stockton are now under the Save Mart banner.

Company history

Banners and brands

Save Mart Supermarkets includes a number of store banners and private label product brands.

Lucky

Lucky is a chain of full-service grocery stores with a broad product offering, including fresh produce, bakery goods, deli foods, and ethnic foods. The chain operates in and around the San Francisco Bay Area under its own banner and its newer banner concept, Lucky California. Lucky is a revival of the original chain (with pictures of its stores from the 1940s) after Save Mart acquired the northern California Albertsons stores from Cerberus Capital Management in 2006, which included the rights to use the Lucky name.

FoodMaxx

FoodMaxx is Save Mart's warehouse-style grocery chain. It began in 1986, when Save Mart's then-CEO Bob Piccinini saw the potential of the no-frills grocery store concept which offered the same products at a fraction of the price. Piccinini opened two new Food 4 Less stores in the Fresno area. After the success of the two new Food 4 Less stores, the first FoodMaxx in Fresno opened in 1989. By 2000, 15 stores had opened. As of 2021, There are currently 51 store locations in California and 2 in Nevada.

Maxx Value Foods

A grocery store in Modesto that offers products at warehouse-store prices without a store club membership fee. It is part of the FoodMaxx banner.

Store brands

Distribution infrastructure

Super Store Industries (Lathrop) also produces and packages bottled beverages, cultured dairy products, and frozen dairy products for several brands, including Sunnyside Farms yogurt, Stater Brothers ice cream, and Minute Maid orange juice. SSI owns and operates Sunnyside Farms (Fairfield) and Sunnyside Farms Dairy (Turlock).

Store closures

Since 2010, the company has closed stores in Bakersfield, Clovis, Delano, Elk Grove, Folsom, Fresno, Kerman, Larkspur, Madera, Merced, Milpitas, Modesto, Sparks, Sanger, San Pablo, Tracy and Yuba City, due to competition, higher prices and other reasons.

Lawsuits

In a 2013 settlement with 35 California district attorneys, the company agreed to pay $2.55 million in civil penalties, costs and expenses for violating state law on storage, handling and disposal of hazardous materials, including bleaches, batteries, electronic devices, ignitible liquids, aerosol products and cleaning products. In 2015 the company agreed to pay $277,319 in back pay and damages to distribution center workers in Vacaville (now closed) and Roseville. A U.S. Department of Labor investigation found the company failed to include bonuses in the employee rate of pay when computing overtime.

Unions

Employees at the company's stores are represented by labor unions. These include: United Food and Commercial Workers, Teamsters, Service Employees International Union and Machinist Automotive Trades District.